All posts tagged ‘First Second Comics’

Final illustration for wrap-around cover of Legends of Zita the Spacegirl, by Ben Hatke.

Final cover with title

We discovered Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke early last year and my daughters and I both loved it. It’s an action-packed sci-fi story with lots of crazy aliens and a little girl named Zita who gets sucked into an adventure. The second book, Legends of Zita the Spacegirl, just arrived recently and it’s a great follow-up. After Zita’s heroic actions in the first book, she’s a bit of a celebrity, but she’s not really enjoying the fame. But when a robot double shows up, Zita sneaks off for some downtime … only to find that the robot double might be enjoying her life a bit much.

Book Two is a good mix of familiar characters and new faces. We get a tiny bit more background about Pizzicato the mouse and Piper along the way. Zita also runs afoul of the Doom Squad, a sort of interstellar police force that’s something of a cross between Judge Dredd and the Three Stooges.

There’s a fearless warrior on the prowl, ready to free her town Mont Petit Pierre of the scourge of the dreaded baby-feet-eating giant. Her name is Claudette, and she’s accompanied by her timid pastry-making brother Gaston and her princess-on-the-brain friend Marie. Oh, and her dog, Valiant. Giants Beware!

Giants Beware! is an upcoming comic book by Rafael Rosado and Jorge Aguirre, and it’s absolutely delightful. If you’ve got comics-loving kids, you’ll want to grab a copy of this as soon as it comes out, because they’ll love it, and so will you. (I liked it so much I’m willing to forgive them for leaving out a comma in the title.) I read it aloud to my daughters, and my five-year-old immediately wanted me to start again as soon as we were done. And then again. And when I’m not reading it to her, she whisks it away and pores over it herself.

Claudette lives in the tiny village of Mont Petit Pierre, which is surrounded by a great wall to protect the village from the giant, driven away into the mountains by Marquis Pierre the XXXII. But when Claudette discovers that the giant wasn’t slain, just scared off, she is indignant. “That’s irresponsible!” she cries.

Do you ever feel like you’re a disappointment to your parents? Or that they have extremely high expectations for you, plans for your life that never included your own preferences or desires?

If so, chances are high that you were raised by immigrant parents, possibly Asians. Now, I don’t mean to say that all Asian (or immigrant) parents are like this, and that others aren’t. However, there are certainly many second-generation Asian-Americans who have similar stories about their “Tiger mothers” and fathers. (My story, told here, is less stereotypical, but I’ve been close enough to others that fall into the pattern.)

It’s a complex issue. I think immigrants (to America, at least) tend to be a self-selected group: those who came because they believed the United States was a land of promise, a place where their offspring could achieve even greater things. Many immigrants end up working tough, low-paying jobs to provide a better future for their kids — and so there’s often a very strong expectation that their kids will rise to meet these opportunities that they didn’t have themselves.

It’s 1942, World War II is raging, and New York City is full of Nazi spies. At least, it seems that way to Evelyn, a young girl who’s stuck with her aunt while her dad is off honeymooning with a new wife. Evelyn spends her time drawing the Amazing Adventures of Zirconium Man and Scooter—superhero versions of herself and her absent father. The only other kid around is Tony, the custodian’s son, and together they start looking for spies. At first they’re simply meddling kids, but then they do stumble upon actual spies, and it gets pretty thrilling as they try to trail the suspects without getting caught.

City of Spies was written by Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan, illustrated by Pascal Dizin, and I wouldn’t have guessed that it’s the first time any of them has worked on a graphic novel. There are some spots where the pacing is a little off; in particular, speech bubbles sometimes don’t go in the order you’d expect. But these are minor quibbles in a mostly excellent graphic novel—it has a great plot, interesting characters and fantastic artwork. Evelyn’s cartoons look like they’re from an old newspaper, with a more cartoony style and Ben-Day dots. The rest of the artwork is sharp and captures the feel of the 1940s; the style reminds me of Tintin.

Although the drawings look innocent and suitable for kids, I’d steer really young kids away from it. There’s humor in the book, but there’s also a guy who gets shot and dies, and another scene where a couple get surprised in bed. (In 1940s underwear, which is fairly modest, but you probably don’t want to explain what’s going on to your little kids.) Also, Evelyn’s cartoons of Zirconium Man and Scooter are cute at first, but hint at something more sinister—something younger kids probably won’t get. However, older kids would probably enjoy City of Spies, and they might even get interested in World War II history or secret codes.

To get a taste of the book, you can read an excerpt on First Second’s website. City of Spies retails for $16.99 and is published by First Second Books.

Wired: Kid detectives and Nazi spies in 1940s New York City; I loved the artwork.

Tired: Occasional pacing problems, but not a significant issue.

Summary: I’d recommend this for older kids who like detective/action stories, particularly if they have an interest in World War II.

For some reason, I’ve come to associate Jane Yolen with fairy tales, although she’s written a lot more than that. She’s the author of the How Do Dinosaurs… series of picture books, the Commander Toad series for young readers, fiction for adults, and seemingly everything in between. However, Foiled is her very first graphic novel.

Yolen explains on her website how Foiled came to be—it’s a little bit about her granddaughter, who was learning to fence at the time, and a little bit about her own experiences with fencing. It’s got magic, high school, first dates, D&D, subways and trolls. And since Yolen was a fencer herself, you can be sure that all the fencing terminology is accurate.

Aliera Carstairs is in high school, where she just doesn’t really fit in. She’s not a jock, not a prep, not a goth, not a nerd. But she’s been fencing since she was eleven, and she’s good—good enough that her coach thinks she has a shot at nationals. Her life revolves around fencing, reading, and playing RPGs with her wheelchair-bound cousin Caroline. That is, until Avery Castle shows up at her school.

Avery is charming and gorgeous, and suddenly all of Aliera’s “looks don’t matter” ideals are a lot harder to hold onto. When Avery ends up as her biology lab partner, she finds herself making jokes and stuttering her speech. But despite Avery’s perfect looks and easy wit, there’s something a little off about him.

I won’t spoil the story, but it’s a combination of growing up, falling in love, and discovering a new depth to the world. Yolen sprinkles fencing metaphors throughout the story; the chapter headings are all named after stances and movements. The artwork is nice, with just a touch of manga-inspired exaggerated facial expressions here and there. But what’s really nice is the way Cavallaro uses color: most of the book is a sort of green-grey monochrome, reflecting Aliera’s color-blindness, but there are spots of color that really shine and fit in with the story.

My only real complaint about the book is that there seems to be a whole lot of exposition without a lot of action. That may be an unfair assessment, since I’m an adult male and the book is probably best suited to adolescent females, but I felt like the payoff—you could sense it coming but you weren’t sure what it would be—takes a long time to get to. And then, right when a whole world of possibilities opens up for the story, it’s over. I haven’t seen anywhere that Yolen intends to write a follow-up, but Foiled really feels (to me) like the first book in a series, deserving of at least one more book to tell the full story. But I do have to admit, I liked the way it ended, despite feeling that the ending came too soon.

Wired: A curious combination of fairy tale, high school romance, and fencing that really seems to work.

Tired: It ends just as it gets really interesting.

Update, 6/12/10: Oops. As jpspeno points out, there is a second book coming. I’d skipped to the story on Yolen’s page and missed that, and the PR materials I’d gotten didn’t mention anything about a sequel. Looking forward to it!